The New York Yankees have placed star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka on the 15-day disabled list with a forearm strain.

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Tanaka Placed on DL

Tuesday, April 28

New York general manager Brian Cashman talked about Tanaka‘s injury, as reported by Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News:

Feinsand also had Joe Girardi’s thoughts on the injury, saying “He’s going to be out for a while. People will have to step up. We’ll deal with it.”

This injury showed no changes to the status of his ulnar collateral ligament, per Feinsand, a ligament that Tanaka tore midseason last year, which caused him to go on the 60-day DL. However, Cashman didn’t rule out Tommy John surgery, according to Peter Botte of the New York Daily News:

Tanaka talked about how he felt through an interpreter, per Botte and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com:

While it may not be known when exactly the injury occurred, Sweeny Murti of Sports Radio 66 WFAN did bring up an interesting point:

In four starts this season, Tanaka has gone 2-1 with a 3.22 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. He last pitched April 23 against the Detroit Tigers, logging 6.1 innings and getting the no-decision.

He was scheduled to start Wednesday against Tampa Bay.

Tanaka looked strong in limited action during the 2015 season, which lifted any suspicionsat least for that period of timethat his right pitching arm wasn’t healthy.

It remains to be seen whether Tanaka hurt himself in this instance compensating for other areas of his body or if it was simply a fluky injury. In any event, New York needs Tanaka in its rotation after finishing 21st in MLB with 83 quality starts in 2014.

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